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WiFi adapter is disabled or hidden in device manager

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Some Windows users are complaining that the Wi-Fi adapter is disabled or hidden in Device Manager on their Windows computers. When they launched the Device Manager and checked the Network Adapter section, they simply couldn’t find the driver. In this article, we’ll talk about this issue and see how you can find or install a WiFi adapter if it’s hidden, disabled, or missing from your computer.

Fix Disabled or Hidden WiFi Adapter in Device Manager

If your WiFi adapter is disabled or hidden in device manager, the first thing you should do is check for available updates, as well as check for optional updates and install available updates. Even though these are not basic solutions, sometimes they can help you; In addition, it is recommended to keep your drivers up to date. If the update doesn’t work for you, try the following solutions to resolve the issue.

  1. Restart your computer
  2. Enable showing hidden devices
  3. Make sure the device is not disabled
  4. Enable Wi-Fi Adapter from Control Panel
  5. Run the network troubleshooter
  6. Scan for hardware changes
  7. Installing the device from the manufacturer’s website
  8. Restore system files

Let’s talk about them in detail.

1]Restart your computer

When you restart your computer, Windows automatically installs the necessary drivers and in turn fixes the problem for you. So, the first thing you should do is reboot your operating system and see if that helps. If this doesn’t help you, move on to the next solution.

2]Enable showing hidden devices

WiFi adapter is disabled or hidden in device manager

Next, let’s check if your WiFi adapter is hidden because that might be the case in this scenario. To do the same, follow the prescribed steps.

  1. Launch Device Manager.
  2. go to view > Show hidden devices.
  3. Expand Network adapters and see if you see a WiFi adapter.

If the adapter is just hidden, this will help you. If there is anything else here, move on to the next solution.

3]Make sure the device is not disabled

You may have disconnected the device manually, or it may have turned off for some reason. You can easily enable the device manually from Device Manager. Just follow the prescribed steps to do the same.

  1. Launch Device Manager.
  2. go to network adapter and expand it.
  3. Right click WiFi driver and select enable device (you will only see this option if your device is disabled).

This should do the job for you.

4]Enable Wi-Fi adapter from Control Panel.

After making sure that the driver is not disabled in Device Manager, we should check the Control Panel to confirm the same. So let’s start control panel and go to Network & Internet > Network & Sharing Center. Now click on Change Adapter Settings from the right panel. If your WiFi adapter is disabled, right-click it and select enable. After completing this procedure, restart your computer and check if the issue is resolved.

5]Run Network Adapter Troubleshooter

Run the Network Adapter Troubleshooter

If there is anything else here, our first solution is to run the Network Adapter Troubleshooter, which is a built-in Windows utility that allows the user to scan and fix the cause of the problem here. To do the same, follow the prescribed steps.

Windows 11

  1. Launch settings via Win+I.
  2. go to System.
  3. Switch to Troubleshoot > Other trouble shooters.
  4. Press Run associated with the network adapter.

Windows 10

  1. Open settings.
  2. go to Update & Security.
  3. Press Troubleshoot and then further Additional troubleshooter or Find trouble shooter.
  4. Finally select Network Adapter and click on Run this is a troubleshooter.

In both cases, you must follow the instructions on the screen to complete the task. After you have installed the driver, check if the issue is resolved.

6]Scan for hardware changes

There is another way to install a missing driver – using Device Manager. We will scan your computer for connected hardware and install the missing hardware. So, in this case, since your WiFi driver is missing but its hardware is connected, in theory your driver should be installed automatically. To do the same, follow the prescribed steps.

  • Strike Win + X and then select device manager from the list.
  • Right click network adapters.
  • Choose Scan for hardware changes.

This will scan the connected drivers and install the required one.

7]Install the device driver from the manufacturer’s website.

We can also try downloading the driver from the manufacturer’s website and see if that helps. This is something you won’t have to do very often as Windows tends to download and install drivers automatically. However, since your driver is missing in this case and rebooting doesn’t work, you need to install the WiFi drivers on your computer. After doing that, check if the issue is resolved.

8]Restore System Files

It is possible that your system files are corrupted and because of this, it cannot detect the connected WiFi adapter. You need to restore system files using installation media and see if that works. You can restore files using the SFC and DISM tools, which can be run using the command line.

I hope you can fix the problem using the solutions mentioned in this article.

How to enable disabled Wi-Fi in device manager?

If your WiFi is disabled in Device Manager, it’s pretty easy to turn it back on. All you have to do is launch the Device Manager, you can do the same from the start menu, then expand “Network adapters”, right click on the WiFi driver and select “Enable device”. This is how you can enable a disabled driver, be it WiFi or whatever.

How to show hidden network adapters?

To show network adapters, launch Device Manager and click View > Show Hidden Devices. This will show all drivers including network adapters. However, if the network adapters are hidden or disabled, then you need to check the solutions mentioned in this post.

WiFi adapter is disabled or hidden in device manager

In this article, we explained that the WiFi adapter is disabled or hidden in device manager. Feel free to let us know if you have questions or comments about this article. Leave a comment below and useguide.net will reply as soon as possible.



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